Bombs hit Chinese Embassy

NATO strike damages buildings in Belgrade; cluster bombs kill 15

Posted: Saturday, May 08, 1999

By GEORGE JAHNAssociated Press Writer

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - NATO launched its fiercest bombardment yet of the Yugoslav capital overnight, striking the Chinese Embassy along with the Yugoslav army headquarters and other government buildings.

Serbian firefighters rushed to the burning embassy building in the capital's New Belgrade district, where Chinese media reported that at least three of the 30 Chinese living inside were killed. Witnesses saw one person taken unconscious from the building.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said NATO forces mistakenly hit the embassy with ``precision guided munitions,'' but had few details about how or why the accident happened.

``We've offered our sincere regrets to the Chinese authorities,'' Shea said at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium. He said NATO forces had intended to hit a nearby army supply depot.

Standing before the shattered embassy engulfed by fire and smoke, Ambassador Pan Zhanlin said: ``The People's Republic (of China) has been attacked.'' Dazed embassy staff ran about the area as firemen searched for survivors.

In Beijing, China's official Xinhua News Agency said one of its reporters, Shao Yunhuan, was one of the dead. It also said more than 20 people were injured and two were missing in the attack. The agency said three NATO missiles slammed into the embassy.

``The Chinese government and people express their utmost indignation and severe condemnation of the barbarian act,'' the government said in a statement reported by Xinhua. ``The U.S.-led NATO should bear all responsibilities.''

NATO said it struck hard at central Belgrade, hitting a presidential command bunker and a hotel housing the paramilitary Arkan Tigers. The alliance said it did not intentionally target the Chinese Embassy, adding that it ``regrets any damage to the embassy or injuries to Chinese diplomatic personnel.''

At the Pentagon, spokesman Kenneth Bacon would not confirm a NATO missile went awry, but he said NATO was targeting at least one building across the street from the embassy.

An emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council began shortly after midnight today in New York. China, a permanent member of the council, has strongly opposed the bombing campaign and sided with the Serbs in the Kosovo issue.

U.N. chief Kofi Annan said he was shocked by the recent NATO attacks.

``The secretary-general was shocked and distressed to learn that NATO airstrikes apparently hit civilian buildings in Yugoslavia on Friday, including a hospital in Nis and the embassy of the People's Republic of China in Belgrade with attendant loss of life and many injured,'' Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

In Belgrade, the president of the Yugoslav Left party, part of the ruling coalition in Yugoslavia, called the attack ``an aggression against the People's Republic of China.''

``After this, the end of this century will be marked by the end of the United Nations,'' Ljubisa Ristic said. ``This might be the beginning of the Third World War.''

As he left the embassy, the jeep Ristic was traveling in was hit by shrapnel from another exploding NATO bomb, wounding him slightly when the windshield was shattered.

The bomb struck the Hotel Yugoslavia, causing a huge fire. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said today that NATO had hit the ``war room of Arkan's paramilitaries,'' referring to indicted war crimes suspect Zeljko Raznatovic, or Arkan.

NATO says Raznatovic owned a casino and spa inside hotel and has been using it as a base for his paramilitary forces.

Later, the Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed reports that the bombing also caused some cracks in the walls and broken glass in its embassy compound in Rome. No one was reported injured, and there was no sign of any protest in Italy.

Late Friday, power to Belgrade was cut. The state-run Tanjug news agency said NATO had again used graphite bombs to cripple the power system. Witnesses also reported a huge fire in the direction of the capital's main power plant.

Other buildings hit in downtown Belgrade included the Yugoslav Army headquarters, the Defense Ministry, a large police precinct and the Interior Ministry, Yugoslavia media reported.

NATO jets also pounded Novi Sad, Sombor and outlying districts of Belgrade. Media reports said bombs landed on Batajnica, site of a major military airfield north of the capital, and the southern Rakovica district.

Tanjug also reported today that Fehmi Agani, a prominent ethnic Albanian politician, was found dead. The agency accused Kosovo rebels, but Western officials said Agani has been in Serb custody since the bombing began.

The overnight attacks on Belgrade came hours after NATO cluster bombs fell in a residential area of the southern city of Nis, reportedly killing 15 people and injuring 60 others.

NATO acknowledged it had used cluster bombs in an attack on a military airport in Nis and that it was ``highly probable'' one bomb went astray.

The strikes came a day after Russia and major Western powers agreed to a proposal that would bring an international force to Kosovo. President Slobodan Milosevic's government signaled it would eventually accept the deal - if the alliance stops the bombing.

Tanjug called the proposed peace agreement ``only the start of a very lengthy and complex process, which will probably end successfully.'' Many details of the plan still must be worked out.

Russia wants the bombing to stop, while NATO insists the Serbs first stop the repression of ethnic Albanians. The United States wants a complete pullout of Serb forces, while Moscow and Belgrade talk of a partial pullout.

The draft plan for ending the conflict also must be endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

NATO launched the air attacks March 24 to force Milosevic into compliance. Nearly 700,000 ethnic Albanians have fled the province since then.